“We’re going to be late,” she told them. They walked decisively down the hall, to no obvious ill effect. Teela followed.
* * *
The rest of the walk to the courtyard was uneventful. It was longer than it should have been because people who were apparently delighted to see Teela at Court stopped to exclaim, and there was no polite way to shut them up. They were all blue-eyed, on the other hand, and even Kaylin’s inexpert knowledge of manners couldn’t disguise the fact that their delight was dripping condescension—or worse.
Teela, however, answered graciously, as if their condescension was so trivial she could fail to notice it at all. Kaylin had never been confronted with so many exquisitely perfect and delighted people who nonetheless felt like they were going to war, and by the time they reached the interior forest that led, at last, to the Consort’s chair she was exhausted. Teela was not.
Her guards were also accustomed to this type of interaction, but they were as blue-eyed as Teela, and to Kaylin’s eye, much more obviously alert.
“Wereanyof those people your friends?” Kaylin asked, when there was a decent chance that no one, except the guards, could hear her.
“Don’t be naive.”
Kaylin accepted this without apparent annoyance—which took a lot of effort.
“If my actual friends were here, we would be in so very much more trouble.” Her brief grin was edged; no doubt she’d said that in a way that Mandoran and Annarion could hear. She took a few more steps, and then slowed to a much more stately walk. “You consider the Hawks in the office to be friends?”
“Yes.”
“That’s where we differ. These men and women are my associates. We are, in one case, distantly related kin. But the distances we keep define us, not the similarities. Would they fight for me? Yes, if my interests and theirs coincided. You dislike Lord Evarrim, but he has intervened in ways that have been extremely beneficial to you in the past. We do not have tolikeeach other in order to work together, when the goals are large enough to encompass our diverse interests.
“Where they are not...” She shrugged. “They suffer from the same thing Joey at the office does: curiosity. They are of course aware of the undercurrents that imply a possible shift of power in the near future, and would consider my presence at this time to be confirmation of rumors. And bold.” She smiled again. “Mortals are more frequently bold when they are confident; my people are more cautious. They wish to ascertain whether my presence is indicative of bravado or certainty.”
“And I’m chopped liver.”
“Sadly, no.”
“Why is that sad?”
“If it were not for your presence, we would not be speaking with the Consort. Since you are here with me—and since many of my people cannot conceive of a friendship or alliance with a mortal of your social insignificance—”
“Thanks, Teela.”
“—the assumption is that I am manipulating you. They believe that it is my desire to speak with the Consort that has brought you here.”
“But it’s not.”
“I did not argue that they were wise; merely curious.”
“Why did you come, then?”
“I would rather they believe that you are mine, of course.”
“But—”
“I am not known for my sweet temper or my pliancy. I am a woman who executed her own father. In the centuries between his crime and his punishment, I did not waver once. You are mortal. Your life span is insignificant. But my memory, and the lengths to which I will go, are not. My presence here reminds them of this, with every step I take. If you are harmed by any of the Lords here, I will destroy them. You arekyuthe, to me.”
Kaylin glanced at Severn; his expression said, clearly,you asked.
“Now I ask that you be more circumspect. The Consort is not alone.”
Kaylin couldn’t see the Consort for the trees that girded either side of the decorative path, but the trees ended abruptly, and the circular meeting place came into view.
The Consort will see you. Approach slowly, if you wish to be politic; approach at your current speed if you wish to make a very public statement.It was Ynpharion.She finds your immediate confusion amusing, he added, in a tone that made it clear that he did not.
Having a head full of Barrani was not terribly comfortable, but before she could say as much—not that it was necessary, given the existence of his True Name—someone familiar stepped onto the path.
Andellen. Or rather, Lord Andellen while he was here. He swept a bow that was just one side of obsequious, but it was meant for Teela, and Teela accepted it with the same easy elegance she had accepted the far less humble approaches.
